Butts Frozen for a year?


 
S

shawn244

TVWBB Fan
I a 2 pack of butts from Sam's club that have been frozen in the cyrovac packaging in my chest freezer since last November. I am planning on cooking them tomorrow night. They are about 75 percent thawed and look great but one of them seems to have kind of a strong pork smell if you get really close and smell it. Should I worry?
Thanks
 
You know Shawn.. after further thoughts and realizing you are from Peoria,IL I would take that chance! And serve it at your tail gate party sunday!!!

Packerbacker BBQ

PS: All in fun my friend
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It would be highly unlikely that the butt could cause illness. Unless it thawed and warmed up for a while (like at least 15 hours >60 degrees F) and then froze again there is little worry.

That said, a strong smell could indicate quality problems. This can occur if the butts were frozen in regular meat counter wrap but can also occur in cryo, particularly if your freezer is a frost-free model as the warming cycles of these units shorten the shelf lives of many items.

Give it another smell when thawed (remove it now from its packaging if you haven't already). Some strong smells occur naturally in cryo packages but should dissipate when the meat is removed from the cryo in short order. If the smell is there still when the butt is thawed, if it is unpleasant, it is not likely that you will cook the smell out of it and the butt should be pitched.

[Good one Bill!]
 
Thanks for the advice. When I first noticed the smell was when I took the butts out of the cryovak. It was very weak but noticeable if you got very close to the butts.

Like Kevin said after a little while in the fridge the smell was gone and all was back to normal. Thanks again!
 
Here is my opinoin. Back a year ago were the butts frozen when you put them in or did they sit for a few days in the reefer and then you decided not enough time to cook them so you decided to freeze them?

For 20 bucks I would toss them and buy two fresh. Its just not worth it.

Rick
The Smoke Hunters BBQ Team
 
You could. But were you to do so it shoudn't be based on food safety concerns, imo. A few days in the fridge--at fridge temps--is no where near sufficient time (nor at sufficient temps) for pathogenic bacteria to be a concern. Further, pathogenic bacteria are controlled by cooking raw meat.

Spoilage bacteria (many of which cause odor) are active at fridge temps (which is why fridged foods spoil) and that is why I suggested waiing to see if the smell dissipated. Cryo'd meats are notorious for odor when the package is first opened and for a time thereafter. Had the meat still had an odor and were the meat cooked anyway then it would be an issue of quality, not safety. Spoilage bacteria rarely cause illness--they just make food taste bad.

It should be noted that while spoilage bacteria and molds have or cause mal odors, pathogenic and toxigenic bacteria do not. But if the scenario was as you describe, pathogenic bacteria would not be the concern.
 
They did not sit in the refride when I first bought them. I remember it well because I bought 6 shoulders that I was going to use to make homemade sausage with over the course of several months. I froze them all right away.

The smell that I smelt was near the bone in an area that was still somewhat frozen. Like I said you would never even had noticed it unless you put your nose about 1 inch or less from the butt. I would say after an hour and half in the fridge the smell was gone. The butts are cooked and tasted great. No worries here. I am really careful about food spoilage. If I thought they were bad I would have thrown away. But, in this case I think Kevin was right.
 
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